Council considers membership fees for rodeo arena

  • Representatives from a group looking to use membership fees to improve the rodeo arena explained that improvements to the announcer’s box are needed.
    Representatives from a group looking to use membership fees to improve the rodeo arena explained that improvements to the announcer’s box are needed.
  • A group of five looking to improve the Yoakum Rodeo Arena had discussed their plans with the Yoakum City Council at each month’s regular meeting since March.
    A group of five looking to improve the Yoakum Rodeo Arena had discussed their plans with the Yoakum City Council at each month’s regular meeting since March.

     

    Disagreements surfaced at the latest Yoakum City Council meeting concerning the potential introduction of membership fees for users of the Yoakum Rodeo Arena.

     

    Ultimately, Councilmember Place 4 Michael Brandt was tasked with conducting a meeting between the parties who held opposing views on fees for the facility. The topic is expected to return to the council’s agenda in June for further discussion and possible action.

     

    Marlin Galloway represented the group that was looking to replace the free public status of the arena with membership fees to improve and maintain the facility. Lisa Kaul spoke out against revoking the public’s free access to the grounds and said she represented several arena users who felt the same way.

     

    “Our purpose is to fix the arena and (use) what we make out of memberships to continue to fix the arena…” said Galloway. “We will have a sign with phone numbers on it, and (interested people) can call us. That way, we know who’s there. We can give them access to the arena; then we can go by and check the area (to) make sure it’s locked back up, trash is picked up and it’s back the way they found it.”

     

    Kaul said that she uses the facility on a near-daily basis and has helped maintain the grounds for 15 years. She said she had once been a member of the Rodeo Club that oversaw aspects of the arena’s operation, though it had disbanded due to a lack of members.

     

    “This is a public facility and a public park, and it always has been. There’s a group of us - a large group of us - that use it regularly,” said Kaul. “We’re highly concerned with some group controlling our access to it.”

     

    Councilmember Place 2 Glenn Klander favored the plans to implement fees to bring life to the aging facility.

     

    “They’re the first group to step up and say, ‘We want to fix it and make it better at no expense to the city. We want to have exclusive - for lack of a better term - control of this area so that we can protect the money and the sweat equity that we’re putting into it, in hopes to better it,’” said Klander of the group of five represented by Galloway. 

     

    During April’s regular meeting, members of Galloway’s group mentioned plans of hosting practices for interested youth as a driving reason for renovating the arena.

     

     “Can y’all get together to work some kind of proposal,” asked Mayor Carl O’Neill of the two parties. “Michael (Brandt) will work with y’all to get a proposal worked out where everybody’s kind of on the same page and bring that back.”

     

    Thus far, no action has been made by Council concerning membership fees or changing the free public status of the rodeo arena; further discussion on the topic will appear on future agendas following Brandt’s attempts at mediation.